The Christmas Code - December 12, 2022
BETHLEHEM IS A PLACE OF PRIVILEGE
My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.
Galatians 4:19
What an awesome privilege to be the hand-picked city to cradle the Son of God. Why Bethlehem? Why not Jerusalem, the seat of religious power? For Rome, the center of political power? Or Athens, the center of intellectual power? God was sending a message. The hope of our world is not in religion, politics, or philosophy. God privileged the little village of Bethlehem to send the message -- the hope of the world is in a savior!
This Christmas could become a Bethlehem moment for you. Like Bethlehem, you can awaken to a brand new world. The same Christ born in Bethlehem can be born again in you. Paul puts it this way:. “I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.” If you think Bethlehem is privileged to be his birthplace, what a greater privilege for Christ to be born in you.
Thinking of Bethlehem, Phillips brooks wrote, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee to night.”
CODE WORD: EXPECTATION
One of the code words of advent is --that sense of expectation, the feeling that something good is going to happen. Bethlehem almost missed the moment. But you can awaken to a brand-new Hope by allowing your life to become a Bethlehem -- the great privilege of having Christ born again in you.
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Lord, thank You, not just for hope but for the realization that You are truly alive in me, in this moment.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.